During the debate in the Gorno-Altaisk City Court, a representative of the prosecutor's office demanded that the founder of the local publication "Listok" Sergei Mikhailov be sentenced to nine years of imprisonment in the case of disseminating "fakes" about the Russian army motivated by political hatred (paragraph "d" of Part 2 of Article 207.3 of the Criminal Code). This was reported by "Network Freedoms".
In addition to the actual term, the journalist is asked to be prohibited from engaging in professional activities and administering websites.
Mikhailov was detained in the spring of 2022 in Moscow, after which he was taken to Gorno-Altaisk and placed in a pre-trial detention center, where he remains to this day.
The journalist is accused of publishing nine posts on the Listok Telegram channel and material on the publication's website about the killings of civilians in Bucha . The Telegram channel posts discussed the destruction of a hospital and theater in Mariupol, the deaths of women and children, and the role of General Mikhail Mizintsev in the events described.
Mikhailov denies his guilt - responsibility for these posts was taken by Listok editor-in-chief Viktor Rau, who left Russia. "In confirmation of his words, publications on the publication's resources continue to appear daily," noted Network Freedoms.
In the spring of 2023, the court refused to consider the case and returned it to the prosecutor's office for revision, since the materials did not indicate where and how Mikhailov posted the aforementioned publications.
- At the moment, more than 950 people have become defendants in criminal cases initiated due to protests against the war with Ukraine. Read more about this in our infographic .
- Article 207.3 (Public dissemination of knowingly false information about the use of the armed forces of the Russian Federation) was included in the Criminal Code in March 2022 — this is how the authorities responded to anti-war speeches and statements, as well as the dissemination of information about the war that does not come from official Russian sources. The maximum penalty under the article is 15 years in prison.